Solihull Low Carbon Energy Network

The project is structured as a 25-year Design, Build, Operate & Maintain (DBOM) contract, ensuring long-term performance and cost recovery. Financial modelling demonstrates the scheme will recover all capital investment costs over its lifetime, with customer tariffs guaranteed to be competitive with existing heating solutions.

The National Wealth Fund financing achieved in Solihull opens new financing pathways for council heat network projects, with our proven ability to attract and structure innovative funding solutions reducing the financial barriers that have historically constrained council infrastructure investment.

Delivering a 5km heat network through a busy town centre presented multiple complex challenges that required innovative solutions and adaptive project management.

Major Arterial Route Disruption Management

Homer Road, Solihull's main arterial route, presented one of the most significant logistical challenges. The presence of a major shopping centre and heavy commercial traffic meant that standard installation approaches were not viable. Our initial November start

encountered severe disruption issues during the critical pre-Christmas shopping period, forcing us to completely stop work and redesign our approach.

Our solution involved developing a sophisticated sectional delivery methodology. Rather than closing the road end-to-end as would typically be preferred for efficiency, we implemented a phased approach, completing each section entirely before moving to the next. This maintained continuous business access while enabling systematic installation across the full route length.

Intensive Stakeholder Coordination

The scale of stakeholder impact required excellent coordination of communications. Our experienced project management team worked seamlessly with Solihull Council's Senior Project Manager Nick Doyle and Sustainable Energy Ltd, while our communications specialists worked directly with Solihull Council's team to manage relationships with all of the affected businesses along the arterial route as well as internal Solihull Council stakeholders including their parks and highways teams.

This comprehensive stakeholder engagement involved keeping businesses informed at every stage of the works, managing expectations around access and timing, and adapting our schedule to minimise commercial impact.

Technical Pipeline Challenges

The 5km pipeline installation encountered several technical issues that required innovative problem-solving approaches. While these challenges were resolved using established engineering principles, they demonstrated the complexity of urban infrastructure delivery and the importance of deploying experienced technical teams capable of adapting to site-specific conditions.

Seasonal Considerations

In addition to the Christmas shopping season, the project timeline will intersect with the winter heating season, meaning that building integration works will need to be carefully scheduled to maintain heating provision across educational and civic facilities.

Careful integration with existing heating systems across multiple operational buildings including schools, colleges, and civic facilities will be required. This presented significant planning challenges, particularly given the critical timing constraints of maintaining heating during winter months.

Our solution involves developing a comprehensive phased integration strategy with Heat Interface Units and plate heat exchangers and scheduling installations primarily over weekends to minimise disruption. Precise coordination will ensure continuous heating provision while systematically replacing existing gas boiler systems across seven individual plant rooms at Solihull College alone.

Working through established parkland with ancient oak trees required us to deploy specialist arboriculture expertise, developing installation methods that protected tree root systems throughout the works. We employed our own arboriculturists and worked closely with Solihull Council's arboriculturists to limit the need for tree removal and mitigate against direct impact to any trees during installation.

We also developed the UK's first methodology for protecting rare wax cap mushrooms during heat network installation. This involved carefully removing turf to one side, conducting excavation work, then replacing the turf to 300mm depth - the first time such protection measures have been implemented in the country for this type of project.

Our social value delivery as part of this project has focused on educational engagement with local institutions including school tours of the energy centre and district heating infrastructure providing valuable STEM learning opportunities. The project team has delivered presentations at Solihull College and conducted site visits to demonstrate low-carbon energy technologies in practice, helping to educate the next generation about sustainable energy solutions.

● Local employment commitments including 180 weeks of apprenticeships

● Local supply chain engagement worth £2,893,258.03 committed

● Staff wellbeing programmes supporting 30 people

● Educational outreach programmes with 24 hours of school and college engagement delivered

● Site tours of the energy centre

The network will provide reliable, low-carbon heating and hot water to major educational and civic facilities, replacing multiple individual gas boiler systems with efficient centralised generation. Customers will benefit from competitive tariffs while gaining protection from volatile fossil fuel prices. As of summer 2025, the project is progressing successfully towards these key operational milestones:

● 5km district heating network fully installed and approaching commissioning

● Energy centre construction completed with CHP installed and thermal storage systems in place

● Solar installation completed and operational, delivering 40% reduction in leisure centre electricity costs

● Project on track with customer connections scheduled for completion April 2026 and heat and power supply commencing November 2025

In Solihull, 49% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy used in buildings. The town centre heat network will save 1,070 tonnes of carbon during phase 1, significantly reducing the towns CO2 emissions and helping Solihull in its drive towards Net Zero Carbon emissions by 2041.

The Solihull model demonstrates how councils across the UK can leverage Vital Energi’s expertise to deliver transformational heat networks that support their climate goals. This project is designed for expansion, with Phase 2 and Phase 3 already under discussion. The modular energy centre design allows for additional capacity and the distribution network can connect further buildings and new developments across the town centre.

Vital Energi’s comprehensive end-to-end capabilities - from supporting funding applications and technical design expertise to implementing 25-year operational partnerships - provide councils with a single-point solution for complex infrastructure delivery. This reduces procurement complexity while ensuring coordinated delivery across all project phases, with Solihull's expansion potential demonstrating how heat networks become attractive long-term investments as demand develops, and additional funding becomes available.